About Nirvana.VIETNAMESE TRANSLATE ENGLISH BY=THICH CHAN TANH.

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The third great truth in the Four Noble Truths is that there is a way out of suffering, out of the continuation of Dukkha, the Suffering. This is called the noble truth of the cessation of suffering - God, it is Nirvana, Nibbana or more commonly, in Sanskrit Sanskrit called Nirvàna.
To eliminate dukkha completely, one has to eliminate the root cause of dukkha, that is the craving or craving for "tanha", as we have seen above. Therefore Nirvana is also known as craving (Tanhakkhaya):  The removal of desire .
Now you will ask: But what is Nirvana? Many books have been written to answer that fairly natural and simple question, but they only confuse the issue more than clarify it. The only reasonable answer to the question is: it is impossible to answer fully and satisfactorily by nouns, because human language is too poor to express the true nature of the Absolute Truth or the ultimate reality of Nirvana.. Language is created and used by humans to express the things and ideas that senses and consciousness experience. A super-human experience, like the experience of absolute reality, does not fall into that category. Therefore there are no words to express this experience, just as a fish does not have its vocabulary nouns to describe the properties of hard soil. The turtle told his friend that he had just returned to a pond after walking on land. "Of course you mean you swim on it?" The fish said. The tortoise tries to explain that "people" cannot swim on hard ground, and people walk on it. But the fish still insisted that there was no such thing, it had to be liquid like its pond, had waves and "people" had to be able to tumble and swim there.
Nouns are signs that describe things and thoughts that we know of, and those signs do not carry and cannot carry the true nature of even ordinary things. Language is considered deceitful and false in understanding truth. Therefore the Lankavatara Sutra teaches that the fool is attached to nouns as well as a bogged elephant (1).
However, we can not help but need language. But if Nirvana is expressed and explained in positive words, then it is easy to capture immediately an idea associated with those words, which can actually be completely opposite. Therefore Nirvana is often expressed in negative terms (2) - perhaps a less dangerous form. So Nirvana is often referred to as negative nouns such as:  Tanhakkhaya: cessation of craving, "the eradication of desire"; Asamkhata , unconditioned: "unbounded, unrestricted"; Viràga , non-greed: "No greed"; Nirodha , "The end"; Nibbàna , passed away : "The blow off" or "The shut off".
Consider some of the definitions and descriptions of Nirvana as found in the Pali texts:

"That is the ultimate end of desire itself: drop it, reject it, get rid of it, get rid of it" (3)
"Silence of all things is limited, the elimination of all bad far away, the "desires", the end of liberation, Nirvana "(4)
" O bhikkhus, what is the absolute unrestricted (Asamkhata)? That is, monks, the the cessation of desires (chaygakkhayo), the cessation of hatred (dosakkhayo), the cessation of delusion (mohakkhayo). Hey monks, this is called the absolute ". (5)
"Ràdha, the dissolution of desire is Nirvana" (6)
"Bhikkhus, whether there are dhammas (things) that are or are not limited, among them the solution of liberation (viràga, freedom from desire) is the highest. It means liberation from arrogance. , except to kill greed (7), uproot the ties (system), cut off the continuation, completely eradicate desire, liberation, end, Nirvana ". (8)

When Parivàjaka asked Sariputta, the chief disciple of the Buddha, "What is Nirvana?", Sariputta answered in the same way as the Buddha's definition of the word Asamkhata: desire, the cessation of hatred, delusion. " (9)

"Renunciation, breaking desire and craving for the five aggregates: that is the end of dukkha" (10).
"The end of samsara (bhavanirodha) is Nirvana" (Musila, a disciple of Buddha). (11)

Later, speaking of Nirvana, the Buddha taught:

"Monks, there is no birth, no growth, no limit. If there is no birth, no growth and no limit, there will be no way out for birth, growth and "Because there is no birth, no growth, no limit, so there is a way out of birth, growth and limitation." (12)
"There is no room here for the four elements: earth, water, wind, fire; the concepts of long, wide, rough, subtle, ugly, good, nama and rupa (noun and form) are completely destroyed, there is no life or the next, there is no coming or going, there is no death or birth, there is no sense object. " (13)

Because Nirvana is expressed in such negative words, many people have a misconception that it is negative, and describes self-destruction. Nirvana is definitely not the destruction of self, because there is no self to destroy. If there is destruction, it is the destruction of delusion, of the wrong notion of self.
It is not right to say that nirvana is negative or positive. The "negative" and "positive" ideas are only relative, and are within the field of treatment. These terms cannot be used for Nirvana, absolute truth, which is beyond duality and relative.
A negative noun is not necessarily a negative state. The term Pali or Sanskrit for health is àrogya, a negative noun, which means "no disease". But àrogya (health) is not just a negative situation. The noun "Immortal" (Skr. Amita or Pali Amata) is also a synonym for Nirvana, which is negative, but it is not just a negative situation. The denial of negative values ​​is not negative. One of the known synonyms of Nirvana is  liberation (Pali: Mutti, Skt: Mukti). Nobody says that liberation is negative. But even liberation has a negative side. Liberation is always liberation from something obstacle, ugliness, negativity. But liberation is not negative. So Nirvana, liberation (Mutti or Vimutti), absolute freedom, is liberation from all evil, liberation from craving, anger and ignorance, liberation from all nouns of treatment, from the relative from time and space.
One can have an idea of ​​Nibbāna as the Absolute Truth in the Sutta of Dharma, Dhātuvibhanga, the No. 140 of the Majjhima-nikàya. This extremely important sermon was given to Pukkusāti (mentioned before) by the Buddha, whom Buddha saw as intelligent and energetic, met in a potter's hut on a quiet night. The essence of the highlights in the sutta is as follows:

"A person is made up of six elements: earth, water, fire, wind, air (space) and consciousness. They analyze them and realize that there is nothing" my "or" I "or" what ". my self "(self and self). They understand how consciousness appears and vanish, how happy, miserable, unhappy, unhappy feelings appear and disappear. From that knowledge, the mind they become open, they are no longer bound, and then they find within them a pure peace (upekhà), which they can control to attain to any supreme spiritual state. And they know that that pure (gentle) contempt will last for a long time. But then they think,
"If we focus this pure contempt on the non-infinite realm  and develop a mind according to it, it is just a creation of the mind (samkhantam) (14). If we focus this pure contempt on the realm  of boundlessness , in the non-possessive realm  (nothing at all), or in the  non- thoughtless realm  (neither perceiving nor sensing) and developing an mind in it, then it is only a creation of the mind. "Then they have nothing constituted in the mind, nor do they want to be born (bhava). or perish (vibhava) (15) Because they do not create, do not want to be born or perish, they are not greedy for the world, because they are not greedy, they are not worried, because they are not worried, they should be peaceful paccattam yeva parinibbàyati) And they know: "birth has ceased, pure life has been lived, what has to be done has been done, there is nothing more to be done". (16)
"Now, when he receives a feeling of joy, suffering or unhappyness, he knows that the feeling is impermanent, that feeling binds him, that he does not receive it with desire. Whatever the feeling, they still receive it without being attached to it (visamyutto) .They know that all that feeling will be peaceful when the body disintegrates, as well as the lamp goes off when oil and wicks burned out.
"Therefore, monks, a person like that has acquired victory over wisdom, because knowledge of the cessation of suffering is the wisdom of victory.
"This liberation of them, based on truth, is not moved. Hey monks, something unreal (mosa dhamma) is evil; what is real (amosadhamma), Nirvana, is true ( Therefore, a Bhikkhu, a person is thus given absolute truth. Because the Holy God (paramam àriyasaccam) is Nirvana, and Nirvana is reality. "

Elsewhere the Buddha used the word Truth to replace Nirvana: " I will teach you the truth and the path to truth " (17). Here certain Truth means Nirvana.
Now what is absolute truth? According to Buddhism the Absolute Truth is: there is nothing absolute in the world, everything is relative, limited and impermanent, and there is no immutable, permanent, absolute being like a self, the soul or the Atman inside or outside. This is the Absolute Truth. Truth is never negative, although there is a common word that is negative truth. The realization of that truth, that is, seeing things as real, without delusion or ignorance (ignorance - avijjà) (18), is the eradication of desire and the cessation of suffering is Nirvana.
Also remember, here, the Mahayana view is that Nirvana is not different from samsara (19). A thing is samsara or nirvana according to whether you see it - subjective or objective. This view of the Avalokiteshvara may have been developed from the ideas found in the Pali texts of Theravada Theravada Buddhism, which we have briefly discussed.
It is not right to think that Nirvana is a natural result of the suppression of desire. Nirvana is not the result of anything. If it is a result, then that result must be produced by a cause. It will be "generated" and "limited" (compounded). Nirvana is neither cause nor effect. It is not born as a mystical, spiritual, spiritual state, like Zen (dhyàna) or Concentration (samàdhi). There is Truth. There is Nirvana. The only thing you can do is see it, do it. There is a path to the realization of Nibbāna. But Nirvana is not the result of that path (20). You can go to the mountain along a path, but the mountain is not the result, the consequence of the path. You can see light, but light is not the result of seeing.
People often ask: What's behind nirvana? This question does not stand firm, because Nibbana is the Ultimate Truth. If it's ultimate, there's nothing behind it. If there is something behind nirvana, that is not nirvana, the ultimate truth. A monk named Rahdha asked that question to the Buddha in another form: "What purpose is Nirvana?" That question assumes there is a good purpose for Nirvana. Therefore the Buddha answered:

"Ràdha, that question is not in place. People live a holy life with Nirvana as the last incarnation into absolute truth, as its purpose, as its ultimate end." (21)

Some common misleading words like "Buddha entered into Nirvana or Parinirvana" (Parinirràna) after his death gave rise to many imaginative thoughts about Nirvana (22). When we hear the phrase: "Buddha entered Nirvana or Nirvana", we thought Nirvana is a national level, or a world, or a position in which there is a certain existence, we try to imagine it. through the meaning of the word "being" that we already know. The common word "enter Nirvana" is not equivalent in the original. There is nothing called "Entering Nirvana after death." There is a word Parinibbuto refers to the death of a Buddha or Arahant who attained Nirvana, but it does not mean "entering Nirvana". Parinibbuto only means "completely gone" "completely blown out" or "completely destroyed"
Now another question arises: What happens to Buddha or an Arahant after death, Bat Nirvana? This question belongs to the type of unanswered questions (impossible, avyàkata) (23). Even when Buddha talked about this, he showed that there were no words in human vocabulary to describe what happened to an Arahant after death. In response to a Vaccha (Parivràjaka) named Buddha, the Buddha taught that words like "birth" or "not born" do not apply in the case of Arahant because of those dharmas - thought life, act, consciousness - dhammas with such words as "birth" and "not born" followed, were completely destroyed and uprooted, never arising again after death.
An Arahant after death is compared to a fire that has been extinguished after stopping adding more wood, or a wick with a wick that has run out of oil. Here we have to understand clearly and transparently that what is likened to an extinguished lamp is not Nirvana, but what is compared to the extinguished fire, the "human" of the five aggregates that have taken Nirvana. This point needs to be emphasized because many people, even some wise scholars, have misunderstood and misinterpreted this parable when it comes to Nirvana. Nirvana is never compared to an extinguished fire or an extinguished light.
There is another common question: If there is no self, there is noman, then who performs Nirvana? Before continuing on Nirvana let's ask: Who is thinking now, if there is no self? We have seen before that it is the mind that is thinking, that there is no thinker behind the thought. Also, it is paññā (pannà) that realizes and realizes. There is no other self behind the realization. In discussing the origin of dukkha we have seen that whatever - person, thing or group - if it has the arising nature, there is also in itself the essence, the germ of cessation, annihilation kill. Since suffering, samsara, samsara have the nature of birth, it must also have the nature of destruction. Dukkha arises because of "craving" (tanhà), and it ceases by hue (Pannà, Prajna). "Sex" and "Hue",
Thus the seeds of the arising of the five aggregates as well as the seeds of the cessation of the five aggregates are in the five aggregates. This is the true meaning of the famous teaching of the Buddha: " It is in this body that we say the world exists, and the way to the end of the world. " (26) This means that all all four Noble Truths are found in the Five Aggregates, that is, within us (here the noun "world" (loka) is used instead of the noun dukkha). This also means that there is no external power arising from the cause and cessation of dukkha.
When wisdom is developed and trained according to the Fourth Noble Truth (on the Eightfold Path), it immediately sees the secret of life, the reality of all things, just as it is. When the secret was discovered, when the truth was found, all the whirling powers that generated the stream of life and death in delusion, became still and could not create any more karma, because there was no still delusion, no desire for life and death. It is like a neuropathy healed, when the patient discovers the cause or secret of the disease.
In almost all religions, perfection can only be achieved after death. But Nirvana can be done right in this life, without having to wait until death to "reach" it.
The one who has realized the Truth, Nirvana, is the happiest person on earth. He is free from all "guilt" and obsession, all afflictions and anxieties make others miserable. His mental health is complete. They don't regret the past, nor do they dream about the future. They live completely in the present (27). So they enjoy and enjoy things in a pure way, without anticipation. They rejoice, rejoice, enjoy the pure life, the senses are contemptuous, free from worry, peace and serenity (28). Because they liberate desire, selfishness, hatred, ignorance, arrogance, conceit and all that "impure" evil. They are clean, kind, generous, compassionate, kind, friendly, sympathetic and tolerant. They serve others in the purest way, because they no longer think of themselves. They make no money,
Nirvana goes beyond all concepts of duality and relativity. So it goes beyond our notions of good and evil, right and left, yes or no. Even the term "happiness" (sukha) used to describe Nirvana here has a completely different meaning. One day Xa Loi Phap said: "Oh you, Nirvana is happiness! Nirvana is happiness!" Then Udàyi asked, "But Sariputta, what happiness can there be, when there is no feeling?" Xa Loi Phat's answer was extremely philosophical and beyond common sense: "It is happiness without that feeling."
Nirvana is beyond reason and judgment (atakkàvacara). Whether we enter into the metaphysical thinking debate - often an unproductive entertainment of knowledge - about Nirvana or ultimate Truth or Reality, we will never understand Nirvana. that way. A child who is still in a nursery school should not make a log about relative law. Instead, if he learns patiently and diligently, one day he can understand the law. Nirvana is "letting the sages experience in themselves" (Paccattam veditabbo vinnùhi). If one follows the path of steadfast perseverance, training and purifying oneself diligently (diligently) and reaches the level of spiritual development needed, one day one can realize Nirvana within us - without having to grieve for complicated and chime nouns.END=NAM MO SHAKYAMUNI BUDDHA.( 3 TIMES ).GOLDEN AMITABHA MONASTERY=VIETNAMESE BUDDHIST NUN=THICH CHAN TANH.AUSTRALIA,SYDNEY.7/3/2020.